the scipp lab (Petersen group)
Stable & Clumped Isotopes for Paleoclimate and Paleoceanography
Huge congratulations to PhD student Alex Quizon, who was selected for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. His project investigating precipitation mechanisms in marine gastropods using advanced clumped isotope techniques (paired D47, D48) will expand our understanding of precipitation mechanisms, phylogeny, and paleothermometry.
MGU (Michigan Geophysical Union) is a 1-day conference completely run by UM students, bringing together students studying earth sciences in the Earth and Environmental Science, Chemistry, and Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering departments across campus. This has historically just been a poster session, but this year a few live talks were held as well.
The SCIPP Lab had a very strong representation at MGU 2022! ALL members of the SCIPP Lab presented (4 grad, 4 undergrad posters) and Sierra volunteered as a judge. Two of our group members (Alex and Allison) were also on the organizing committee! Everyone did an awesome job creating their posters and presenting their results. Two of our undergrads were awarded “best undergrad presentation” awards! Congratulations Cecilie and Samantha!
Photo credit for all photos (except the selfie) goes to MGU Photographer and Earth PhD student, Mike Machesky.
The SCIPP Lab gathered to welcome new members (4 undergrad UROP students and 2 new PhD students), say a bit of a goodbye to old members (Julia will be around less often in the coming months), and enjoy each other’s company and food and Sierra’s new back deck. This came together last minute as we realized the long late summer weather was going to abruptly become fall at any moment, but was by all accounts a huge success. We learned that ring toss is harder than it looks, and that SCIPP lab members are big fans of chips and dips of all sorts. We sampled multiple desserts baked by group members, all of which were delicious – even the mysterious pastry/nutella experimental creations of Alex. We also determined that we are surprisingly good at soccer as a group and are ready to challenge another research lab in the Earth department to a game when the time is right. We all agree – Sabrina will be the goalie.
Looking forward to a fun year with these folks!
SCIPP Lab members Jade Zhang, Lucas Gomes, and Alex Quizon set out on a week of field work with UM Alum and SCIPP group collaborator Dr. Ian Winkelstern and two of his students from Grand Valley State University. The group is hoping to collect Pleistocene and Pliocene marine mollusks from the US East Coast. Good luck!
We are very excited to welcome our two newest members, Lucas Gomes and Alex Quizon, both PhD students. Lucas will be working on reconstructing paleoceangraphic conditions in the Pliocene of Florida looking at extremely fossil-dense beds of the Tamiami Fm./Pinecrest beds and Caloosahatchee Formation. Alex will be working on fossil seashells from South Carolina dating to the Last Interglacial and calibrating the clumped isotope paleothermometer in modern marine gastropods. Welcome welcome!
We are also sad to (sort of) say goodbye to our postdoc Matt Jones, who has left us for a fancy postdoc fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC (congrats Matt!). We will still be collaborating closely with Matt in our efforts to reconstruct Cretaceous paleotemperatures, especially in the Western Interior Seaway. He plans to leverage the extensive Cretaceous fossil collections of the Smithsonian and send us samples to analyze for clumped isotopes.